DNA Party is a little sandcastle of magic sounds. As soon as it’s here, it’s just as quickly washed away. But for a few moments, it vibrates with fascinating microscopic life. Everything sparkles, everything celebrates. Toby Gale’s particular brand of manic whiz-kid glitter house dazzles on this miniature EP.
Awash with romantic hues and twinkling glee, three dance tracks and two interludes transport DNA Party into its own private rented dancefloor for 17 magical minutes. Gale conducts high-frequency electronica along transient wires, forming wireframes of melody out of loose particles and spliced voice samples before bringing them to life with breathing bass and a warm house heartbeat. Lovely communal melodies are pitched from bells to whistles and chimes in a hyperactive syncopation, all the while circling in new patches that burst forth with explosive friendliness. Nothing is superfluous, everything is incorporated to the groove as a single DNA chain.
Guest vocals from Tes (on the lively, wonderful “Tink Dash”) and other, disembodied, vaporous voices pan around the edges of these songs like curious cherubs peeking in, sprites of strange organic life created from the interacting energy waves. Standout “Jet” incorporates a rebuilt pop gibberish in its construction, a fast-forwarded, chintzy synth pop sample that patterns familiar lyrical symbols into pseudo scat-singing, a space-smart reduction of lyrical expression to a quicker, purer form of pleasure.
Toby Gale’s work on this EP is meticulous, but seems so simple in execution. Like other artists on the Apothecary Compositions label, there’s a deeply cerebral approach to this music, but Gale’s sticks out as almost naively optimistic and proves refreshingly simple. Melody is fluid and paramount and travels in every space but the kick. It floats and it stings around it, chases the beat with lust, trips, falls over itself and in a single motion cartwheels into melody anew. Although its size is small, every note on this EP shines brightly.
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